From the Pelican Point parking area, a paved bike trail swings toward the bluff's edge. From here you descend to the end of a long, sandy beach, and turn up-coast over boulders and finlike rock formations into the tidepool area. The rock formations in the tidepools and the nearby cliffs are thinly bedded shales, gently tilted and locally contorted, dating back about 12 million years. In most but not all places in the intertidal zone, this rock affords good traction even when wet.
On your way up toward Little Corona Beach you'll pass two picturesque sea stacks just offshore, both pierced by wave action. The northern of the two is named Arch Rock, but either could just as well have been called Bird Rock for the ever- present pelicans and other avian life.
In the intertidal strip itself, a few dozen steps from high-tide to low-tide level encompass a complete spectrum of marine plants and animals adapted to the various degrees of inundation and exposure. In the high intertidal zone, hardy species like periwinkle snails, limpets, mussels, barnacles, and green sea anemones are found. Some of these creatures are adapted to survival in habitats moistened only by the splash of breaking waves. Shore crabs patrol these bouldered spaces, but they're likely to be hiding when you're looking for them.
Closer to the surf, the middle intertidal zone features the rock depressions called tidepools, and luxuriant growths of surf- grass, which look like bright, shiny green mats of long-bladed grass. The tidepools serve as refuges for mobile animals like fish, shrimp, and the sluglike sea hare, as well as some of the relatively immobile animals like urchins and various shellfish. Here the effects of "biological erosion" are apparent in the many pits and cubbyholes in the rocks occupied by various creatures.
In the low intertidal zone, many kinds of seaweeds thrive, including the intriguing sea palm. Animal life, however, is usually concealed beneath the rocks. Carefully pick up a rock and you may discover starfish, sea urchins, sponges, worms, chitons, snails, abalone, and hermit crabs. If you're very lucky, an octopus may come your way. Remember that all marine life, shells, and rocks are protected; if you pick up a rock, replace it exactly where you found it, to preserve the habitat of the creatures depending upon it.